It is typical for a household trash receptacle to use plastic liners, so as to facilitate removal and disposal of trash, and so as to protect the interior of the receptacle from contamination by the trash, thereby reducing the frequency with which the trash receptacle must be cleaned.
Usually, a so-called plastic “trash bag” is used as a plastic liner for a trash receptacle. Plastic trash bags are readily available in a wide variety of sizes and strengths. However, use of plastic trash bags represents an expense for the consumer. Also, and perhaps more importantly, use of plastic trash bags represents a one-time use of a plastic product which consumes energy in its production and adds to the build-up of non-biodegradable waste in landfills, if the trash is buried, and/or to added air pollution from combustion of the trash bags in trash incinerators.
Another cause of wasted energy, solid waste build-up in landfills, and air pollution in incinerators is plastic shopping bags which are used to convey groceries and other purchased items from a point of sale to a consumer's home or business, and then are typically discarded (often in a trash can with a plastic trash bag liner) after this one-time use.
One approach for reducing the expense and environmental impact of plastic trash bags and plastic shopping bags is to re-use plastic shopping bags as trash bags, thereby reducing or eliminating the use of plastic trash bags. It is possible to use a plastic shopping bag as a liner in a very small, conventional trash receptacle by folding the top of the shopping bag over the rim of the trash receptacle. However, due to the small size of most plastic shopping bags, this is only possible in very small trash receptacles, as may be typically found in some household bathrooms and bedrooms.
Special trash receptacles have been proposed (and some are commercially available) which make maximal use of the volume of a plastic shopping bag by suspending the bag by its handles from appendages provided at or near the rim of the trash receptacle. This avoids the need to fold part of the plastic shopping bag over the rim of the receptacle, and allows the full volume of the shopping bag to be used for containing trash. In some of these designs, the appendages are hooks which are provided on the interior walls of the trash receptacle. However, this approach typically locates the top of the plastic shopping bag below the rim of the trash receptacle, and can thereby expose the interior of the trash receptacle to contamination by overflowing trash, if the receptacle is filled above the level of the shopping bag liner and comes into direct contact with an upper region of the trash receptacle and/or penetrates into the space between the shopping bag and the inner walls of the trash receptacle.
Another approach is to locate suspending hooks or other appendages on the outer walls of the trash receptacle, such that the handles of the plastic shopping bag are folded downward over the rim of the receptacle and hooked on the exterior appendages. This approach has the advantage that the rim of the shopping bag can be located at or slightly above the rim of the trash receptacle. However, when removing a filled shopping bag liner, it can be inconvenient and/or difficult to grasp the plastic handles of the shopping bag, and to pull them downward and away from the suspending hooks, thereby dragging the sides of the plastic shopping bag over the rim of the trash receptacle. This is especially true if the bottom of the plastic shopping bag is not fully resting on the bottom of the trash receptacle, so that the weight of trash contained in the plastic shopping bag pulls the handles of the shopping bag tightly against the suspending hooks, and increases the friction of the sides of the plastic shopping bag as they are dragged over the rim of the trash receptacle.
Yet another approach is to provide handles or other suspending appendages which extend upward from the rim of the trash receptacle, so that the plastic handles of the shopping bag can be placed over the suspending appendages such that they pull downward against the bases of the appendages and against the rim of the receptacle. This approach avoids the need to drag the sides of the plastic shopping bag over the rim of the receptacle when removing a filled liner. However, the handles of the shopping bag in this approach are typically pressed against some other structure, typically the rim of the trash receptacle at the base of the suspending appendages, especially if the bottom of the plastic shopping bag is not fully resting on the bottom of the receptacle. Hence, access to the handles is hindered either above or below the handles (or both), and it can still be difficult to grasp the handles of the plastic shopping bag so as to obtain a firm grip for lifting the filled shopping bag up and out of the trash receptacle.
What is needed, therefore, is a trash receptacle configured for using a plastic shopping bag as a liner, whereby the full volume of the shopping bag is available for filling with trash, the liner protects the interior of the trash receptacle from contamination by overflowing trash, and the handles of a filled shopping bag can be easily grasped for removal from the receptacle, even if the bottom of the shopping bag is not fully resting on the bottom of the trash receptacle.